"Stop that," said Carter sharply, "or you'll burst the gunwales out."
"O Carter," said Kallee, speaking in Okky, "listen. It is only by my favor that you have lived so long. We are both ju-ju men, and between such it is useless to make pretence. But I can tell you all you did since you left Mokki, and met Smith, and went to the cliff whereof ben Hossein told you, and saw the stones which carry the brown glass which you covet so much. I can tell you of your machine which says boo-paa-bumm, and of the way you came down these creeks on a raft, and how you labored prodigiously in the blind channels. I had arranged to let you get so far. To-morrow, when you came abreast of my villages, canoes would have come out—" Here the King screwed round his fat neck and eyed Carter over his shoulder—"O Carter, do you think it strange that I should have wanted a head such as yours?"
"You would not tell me this now if you still wanted that head."
One could not deny that somehow the man had a certain regal dignity about him. "O Carter," he said, "if I have a King's lusts, I have all of a King's gratitude. I was travelling down this river. My canoe was overturned by a snag, and it and the paddlers were swept away down stream, and if the crocodiles have not dealt with the men I will give them their due presently. For myself, I climbed into that tree as you saw, and could not have endured longer. What account was open between us we will wipe from the tally. I owe you for my life now, and I will repay."
"Are my Krooboy and the fishers included in the treaty?"
The King shrugged his great shoulders. "I could give you a better servant than White-Man's-Trouble, and better paddlers than those fishermen. But if they please you, they shall remain alive and well treated. Paddle now quickly down stream to the village, O Carter, and we will drink Krug champagne till a goat is slain and chop prepared."
The village, when they came to it, was not a pleasant sight. It had been rebellious, and the King of Okky had been instilling discipline with a strong hand. Furthermore, two of his canoemen had escaped from the river and reported that the King was drowned. They were also attended to in a way that prevented their ever erring again in this world. The King dispensed champagne, and arranged great matters of life and death with a massive impartiality. And between whiles he found abundant time to talk with his guest, now using Coast English for the sake of greater privacy. His knowledge of what had been going on was at times almost uncanny.
"O Carter," he said, "dem Laura, she lib for Teach-palaver house in Las Palmas."
"She left for Las Palmas in the Frau Pobst certainly. But I don't know where she is staying."
"Teach-palaver house," said the King placidly, "by Telde."